Unmistakable
by checkerboardom
Summary: There's no way for him to ever see the timeline in which Cisco Ramon dies at the hand of his soul mate. A part of him is grateful for that, but another infinitely more curious part wonders why. Cisco/Wells soulmate AU
1. Unmistakable

**Title: Unmistakable**

 **Rating: Teen**

 **Relationships: Cisco/Eobard, Cisco & Harry.**

 **A/N: This is an AU of 2x05: The Darkness And The Light in which I introduce a soulmate element. Note for past Cisco/Eobard relationship. Enjoy!**

* * *

He hears him before he sees him, even if it's much easier to pretend that he doesn't. Still... A quick flick of his wrist lowers his music enough for conversation and Cisco seems to take that as his cue to actually enter the room.

"Come inside. Use my work room, use my computer. I don't care." Ramon says, the now-black letters of his soulmark flashing as he waves a hand around the room. The sarcasm is painfully obvious, dripping into the air between them in a way that he can't be bothered to care about.

"Thanks." He shoots back and he can almost hear the eye roll that follows.

"You and Wells Prime have very different musical tastes; his were better." It's petty and they both know it, but he lets it slide because his musical tastes are not what Cisco's here to talk about.

"This Harrison Wells and I are very different, but similar in some respects." He reminds him, not bothering to look up from his research into this Earth's Wells. "I see he made almost the same mistake that I did with the particle accelerator."

"He did a lot of terrible things." Cisco shoots back. "None of them were by mistake."

 _There it is_ , he thinks, and pushes back from the computer so that he can stand. _That's why you're here._

"What did he do to you?" He asks and Cisco looks away as if that will keep him from digging. "I know he caused the singularity and killed Barry's mother. Blah, blah, blah." He's heard enough about that, but not about why this _child_ skirts around him like a mouse would a particularly viscous cat.

"What did he do to you?" He repeats and picks up the nearest item to him; a bright red clamp, cold and heavy in his hand. Familiar in principle but not in practice. " You can barely look me in the eye." The flinch that he receives when the clamp slams into the bar between them isn't quite what he expects, but it's not an answer either, so he presses on. "Why is that? What did he do to you?"

"He shoved his hand through my chest." Is what he gets, angry and bitten off as Cisco glares up at him. "He told me that he loved me and stopped my heart."

There's something vulnerable behind that anger, something that he's not supposed to hear, but he laughs anyway, because: "Ouch. Okay, that would do it." A quick glance up and he knows that he still has his attention. "But you survived that..."

"Only because Barry erased that timeline." Cisco adds, which doesn't help in any way toward explaining _why_ Cisco remembers, but he can certainly play along.

"I see. Barry traveled back in time." Even if he can't quite keep the smugness out of his tone.

"Twice." Not a fluke then, if he remembers both times.

He hums and sets the clamp aside so that he can cross his arms. "Here's how it is."

Cisco looks up from where he'd tracked the clamp's movement and shifts ever so slightly away. "What's the deal?."

"You don't like me." An understatement. "I don't like you," Not quite true, but then he doesn't not like him either. "But you have to work with me to stop Zoom and Doctor Light. Can you do that?"

There's no use wasting his time on him if he can't, but Cisco just looks away again and makes to leave. "I guess we'll see, won't we?" He says as he passes and Wells almost smiles in response, thumb flicking over the button on his watch to start it scanning.

"I guess we will." He tells him instead and lets him reach the doorway before reeling him back. "One more thing; you said you were going to retest the STAR Lab's satellite."

"To scan for solar emissions, yeah" A good lie if he hadn't checked to see if Cisco had kept his word ten minutes before the engineer had even shown up in the doorway. "We're up and running."

Turning back to the scaffold to check his watch, he notes that the clamp is gone and internally applauds Ramon's sense of self-preservation.

"I want to see your program-"

 _I want to see what you can do-_

" -I want to see if it works."

 _-And how well you can do it._

"Don't worry," Cisco scoffs and drops the clamp onto the shelving by the door. "It'll work."

Once he's truly gone, Wells glances down at his watch and, sure enough, it's glowing an unmistakable red.

...

That should have been the end of it. He has what he wants and Cisco's none the wiser to being played.

That should have been the end of it, but his brain catches on to a detail of their conversation and won't let it go until he gives up on Harrison Wells' internet biography altogether.

 _He told me he loved me and stopped my heart._ Said all broken and angry, but not angry at Wells. Or even Eobard, really.

"Oh, you idiot." He can't help but breathe once it clicks. "You can't look me in the eye because I'm not him." He's just different enough from Cisco's Wells to be a painful reminder of what's missing, but not different enough for him to forget being murdered by his own soulmate.

...

It's laughable how truly easy it is to find the security feed of when Cisco's soulmark changes color, even if it doesn't happen right away. It's a meet up, obviously planned to put _Hartley Rathaway_ of all people at odds with Cisco, although the reason behind doing so is anyone's guess. A back up plan perhaps, or, given the words gracing his doppleganger's wrist, a way to usher in a new favorite in as clear a way as possible.

Wells isn't even done speaking before the engineer is shoving his fists into his pockets in what anyone would mistake for nervousness. Hr knows better, however, and pauses the surveillance feed long enough to read the words wrapping around Ramon's wrist.

 _One of the finest engineering minds I have ever seen._

It's just a snippet of conversation, not even their first words to each other, but it's a soulmark nonetheless. Stark and unmistakably in black instead of the dusty red it had been seconds before and Wells feel something dangerously close to pity curl up his stomach.

There's no way for him to ever see the timeline in which Cisco Ramon dies at the hands of his soul mate.

A part of him is grateful for that, but another infinitely more curious part wonders why.


	2. Frequency

**Title: Unmistakable**

 **Rating: Teen**

 **Relationships: Cisco/Eobard**

 **Summary:** If there's one thing that Eobard both loves and regrets, it's the ease with which he isolates Cisco once the young engineer begins working for him.

* * *

 **Part II: Frequency**

* * *

If there's one thing that Eobard both loves and regrets, it's the ease with which he isolates Cisco once the young engineer begins working for him.

Of course there's the team at STAR Labs, but Hartley makes his dislike for Cisco clear from the very start, and Caitlin and Ronnie are wrapped up in each other more than they seem to realize. Still, they do try, barring Hartley, but its Eobard, or Wells rather, that Cisco ends up confiding in when asked why he's never eager to leave at the end of the work day.

"It's just that my apartment feels so empty," He explains as he examines the blueprints that Eobard has set before him. "Don't get me wrong, it's great not living with my parents anymore, but sometimes..."

He trails off and presses the erasing end of his pencil against his bottom lip. "It's isolating," Eobard volunteers. "Being away from things that you consider familiar. Things that you've grown up around."

"Yeah, exactly." He says it with a little too much enthusiasm, like it's a wonder for someone to finally understand him, then pauses. "Was it like that when you moved here from Starling City?"

Oh if only he knew. "Not exactly, no, but at the time it was necessary." Or so he'd thought, but now he's stuck here in the past, instead of just a city away.

Across from him, Cisco grows solemn, brow knitting together as he sketches on the newly improved klystron that he's designing for the particle accelerator. Eobard watches as he works, following the smooth lines that Cisco creates while also allowing him to process whatever is making his brows scrunch up in such a way.

"You must miss her a lot," Cisco finally says, soft and obviously worried that he's bringing up something that he shouldn't. "Your soul mate, I mean."

"Tess and I were never soul mates." Not at all a lie; he cares as much about Tess as he did about Nora Allen. "Are you planning on redesigning the radiofrequency cavaties as well?" He asks when Cisco lets out a breathy Oh and the young engineer shoots him a grateful look, latching onto the subject change like a bird would a branch.

"Not really." Eobard raises an eyebrow and Cisco huffs, tossing his pencil down onto the table between them. Not two weeks ago he would have never dreamed of doing such a thing and that change makes it difficult to bite back a smile.

"Cisco, can you tell me the maximum acceleration of the Large Hadron Collider?" A simple enough question and Cisco doesn't disappoint.

"Eighty-four percent the speed of light, so..." He picks up the pencil again and fiddles with it. " Somewhere around five hundred and sixty three million miles an hour. Give or take."

"Give six hundred and forty thousand more miles and you'd be correct." Eobard tells him and Cisco flushes. "I want to go twice that."

"Which means a higher oscillation rate for the cavaties in order to push the particle along." Cisco sighs but there's a gleam in his eyes as he taps his pencil against the klystron blueprints. "I can't just make them faster, you know. I'll need to make more of them too."

"Then I suggest you get started first thing tomorrow morning, Mr Ramon." Eobard tells him and Cisco checks his phone for the first time in what's most likely been a few hours.

"Shit." He shoots up from his chair and shoves his phone back into the pocket of his jeans before scooping his work into a half-hazard pile and tucking it into a drawer of his desk. "Sorry." He adds and Eobard waves him off.

"I hope I didn't make you late for something."

Cisco blows out a breath and tucks a lock of hair behind his ear. "No, I just... The buses stop running soon and I hate walking."

There's no way for Eobard to not wrinkle his nose in disgust at the thought of public transport. It's something that he's infinitely grateful to for not existing in his time and he offers Cisco a ride home before he can think better of it.

And Cisco accepts with the most delicious mix of gratitude and incredulity that Eobard has ever had the pleasure of seeing.

"Don't ever dumb down the answer to one of my questions again, Cisco." He adds as they reach the elevator in the Cortex and it may be the wording of the command or a trick of the light but he swears that Cisco's eyes dilate in response.

...

There's a pattern to it after that. Nights spent tucked away in Cisco's work room once most of the staff have gone home. By the second week Cisco brings in a DVD player and proceeds to "educate" him concerning his woeful lack of knowledge about cult classics. Despite Cisco's best efforts however, he only retains a strange fondness for the first Donnie Darko movie and a growing disgust for what Cisco deems "movie science".

"As opposed to actual science." Eobard points out and Cisco bites into a Red Vine with a vengeance.

"That's exactly why we have this thing called suspension of disbelief." But no matter how far he suspends that disbelief, Tom Cruise should still be dead.

He tells Cisco this and receives a snort in reply as the young engineer comes dangerously close to choking on his candy in between laughs.

A week later he invites Cisco to dinner on the way home and is pleasantly surprised when he accepts. They end up in a fairly nice Thai restaurant a few blocks from Cisco's apartment, the familiarity of which seems to settle Cisco's nerves better than anything Eobard could hope to say.

Still, he can't seem to keep from asking the obvious. "Is this a date?" It's said quickly and from behind the cover of his menu, as if the speed and added barrier might swallow up the words before they can be heard.

Eobard smiles, but remains focused on his own order. "If you'd like. Or it could be dinner among colleagues."

"I think I like the date option more." Cisco says, letting his menu drop to reveal more of his face and Eobard winks.

"How are the radiofrequency cavities coming along?" He asks once they've placed their orders and Cisco gives him a grateful smile.

"Considering how massive they are? Surprisingly well. You were right about the copper shielding and Ronnie promised to help me with making sure everything is set up soundly."

"It seems my belief in your abilities was not at all misplaced then." Not that he ever believed they were, but he knows that there are some things that the young man before him needs to hear before he can start accepting his own accomplishments. "Excellent work Mr Ramon."

And Cisco practically glows with pride.

...

The next time the go out he has the pleasure of seeing Cisco try Gan Guo for the first time and laughs unrepentantly when his entire face goes red. When he kisses him at the end of the night the lingering heat of the peppers makes it all the better.

...

"One has to wonder how long you're planning on keeping this particular stray around." Hartley's leaning against his door jam when he arrives to work four months from the unveiling of the STAR Labs Particle Accelerator and makes absolutely no effort to hide the glare that he's shooting Cisco's way.

"He's not a dog, Hartley." It's a silly thing to have to say but Hartley only scoffs and follows him into his office.

"He's not wanted either." He points out as Eobard logs in to his computer and pulls up his email. "At least dogs leave when all the table scraps are gone."

"Which is particularly harsh coming from you, considering the similarities in how your families regard the each of you." He makes a show of clicking his mouse when Hartley turns his glare onto him and cups his cheek into his hand. "Have you gotten that email from Dr. Sheehy yet?"

"Have you gotten into his pants yet?" Is the snapped reply and Eobard shoots him a look through his fingers. "It's not exactly hard to miss that your his Identifier."

"A soulmark doesn't constitute romance, or even attraction. You know that."

Hartley rolls his eyes and turns to pick up two of the chess pieces from the set on the table. "It doesn't constitute a healthy working relationship either.

"One could almost say you sound jealous." Hartley pauses at that, nose scrunching up in a look of pure disgust.

"Not on his life." He sets the queen down with enough force that it clacks against the glass of the desktop despite the green felt underneath it. "This is me. And this," he hold up a pawn. "Is Cisco Ramon. In chess there's nothing better than knowing when and how to use your pieces, Wells."

Now it's Eobard's turn to scoff. "Don't paraphrase Griffiths at me, Hartley." He plucks up the queen from his desk and turns it through his fingers. "Go see Dr Snow about the Bio-Med project, then check your mail for a reply from Dr Sheehy. I'd like her here for the unveiling."

Hartley retrieves the queen when it's held out for him and places it back on the board with the pawn before turning to leave and Eobard clears his throat once he's reached the door. "I've always respected your opinion Hartley, but I'm still the CEO of this company and you're still my employee. Try to remember that the next time you decide to question my hiring choices."

...

"You should have seen it." Cisco complains, eye roll including, as he unlocks and opens the door to his apartment with a flourish. "They looked like they were walking into a pig sty instead of a..." He looks around at his own living room like he's seeing it for the first time. "Fairly cluttered one bedroom. Maybe my mom was right."

"It's homey." Eobard allows, taking in the model USS Enterprise on the shelf of the entertainment system.

Cisco shoots him an unimpressed look. "It's dirty and I can not believe that I brought you back here. Sorry, I'm just gonna..."

"Hey," Eobard stops him before he can start trying to clean and plucks his apartment key from his hand. "It's you. Don't apologize for that." He sets it down on the coffee table and brushes a lock of hair from Cisco's face.

It's Cisco that initiates the kiss this time, rising up on his tip toes to do it and Eobard loops an arm around his waist to pull him closer.

* * *

 **A/N: *laughs manically* You thought.**

 **So, I was rewatching the first season of the Flash when it hit me how fucking massive the STAR Labs Accelerator was. The fact that they could use the Cavities as holding cells is just... The RF Cavaties on the LHC are about an eight that size and in the show they have room to move around inside them. What the fuck. Do you how much design had to go into engineering that?**

 **...As you can see, a year of engineering has made me into a giant science nerd. Sorry.**


	3. Coup-De-Grace

**Title: Revelation**

 **Rating: Teen**

 **Pairing: Cisco/Eobard**

 **Warning: Major Character Death**

* * *

 **Part III: Coup-De-Grace**

* * *

If there is one undeniable truth about Dr Caitlin Snow, it's that she's a terrible liar. And while that may have been a benefit when it came to parsing out the emotions of his team, it's not a comforting thought now. Still, he decides to humor her.

"I often forget how important it is to step away from my ever present routine. Thank you, Caitlin." What are you hiding, you silly girl? "This morning has been... A refreshing change of pace."

Her forced smile grows a little less taunt, more natural, as she shift in her seat. "Well you can have more than two hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, Dr Wells." She says and Eobard has to wonder if she truly thinks that his eating habits are that mundane.

It doesn't matter.

"What can I say? I guess I'm a creature of habit." He tells her and glances up when the waitress arrives with two dark red mugs. "I'm sorry, but I believe those were to go."

Across from him, Caitlin jolts, practically lunging in eagerness as the tight-lipped smile from before reappears. "Actually, I thought we could sit here and enjoy them."

He licks his lips and tries to remember if something might have happened recently to trigger such odd behavior in his most level-headed scientist. She fiddles with her bracelet, then her sleeve, and can barely meet his eyes when he smiles. "Why not?"

"You know, Dr Wells," She begins and he can practically see her thinking up a lie. "I want to thank you again for what you've done for Ronnie."

Eobard can count on one hand the amount of times that Dr Snow has ever expressed gratitude twice over the same thing in the last two years and shakes his head. She'll have to do better than that.

"One thank you will suffice, I'm sure." He tells her and the pause afterward while he waits for her reply is excruciating. Then it hits him, why Caitlin would ever lie to keep him away from STAR Labs, and he has the peculiar feeling of wanting to be wrong about something for the first time in his life.

Cisco.

Removing his glasses, he sets them on the table and clenches his fists in his lap to keep them from shaking in a toxic mix of anger and sadness. "You know, Caitlin," he says and for a moment she looks absolutely terrified that he's found her out. "If Cisco were to adjust the radial velocity parameters of the STAR Labs satellite, we might be able to better detect the vortex of a storm."

The look of relief that dances across her face in that moment is almost painful to see. "And if we could detect those air updrafts, no matter where they originate, no matter how small," He continues and retrieves his glasses from their resting place on the table. "We might be able to locate Mark Mardon."

"That's a great idea." She breathes out a sharp breath and smiles.

"So why don't we go to STAR Labs and alert Cisco?" The smile dies and he replaces it with one of his own as she hesitates.

"Let me just get these to go." She finally says and he only stays long enough for her to start speaking to the teller.

...

He can hear the hologram through the walls of the elevator when he finally arrives on the floor holding the containment cell and the most prominent thought in his head as the doors open is how two years of progress in a relationship with a mind like Cisco Ramon's is a shame to have to throw away.

"...not like the Flash at all." The hologram says and Eobard breathes in.

"Some would say I'm the reverse." He finishes and when Cisco turns to look at him, it's the first time that he can't immediately read the the expression on his face. He walks forward and his hands start to tingle, so he claps them, slow and measured, to try and banish the feeling.

"You're incredibly clever, Cisco." Too clever. "I've always said so."

And he has, both verbally while at work and silently at home, with words pressed into his spine and kissed against the curves of the soulmark on his wrist. But that doesn't matter now.

"You're him," Cisco breathes and at one point he would've found the betrayal in the young engineers eyes beautiful. "The Reverse Flash."

"You and I have never been truly properly introduced." Not in two whole years of intimacy and the regret in his words are sharp enough to cut. "I am Eobard Thawne."

He gives a small bow and Cisco's head tilts to the side, as if looking at him differently will make this moment a lie.

"Thawne? Like Eddie?" He asks and Eobard thinks that he's going to miss that unrepentant curiosity the most.

"Let's call him a distant relative." Thawne allows and Cisco jerks his thumb toward the containment cell, already moving on.

"The night that we trapped the Reverse Flash you almost died." Eobard hums an affirmative , but lets him work through it on his own. "There were two of you."

He pauses him there by holding up a finger and Cisco's face becomes a mixture of awe and fear as he creates a speed mirage. The awe must win out however, because he walks closer and Eobard looks at his double so that Cisco won't see the genuine smile that graces his face.

"It's an after-image, a speed mirage, if you will." He stops running and his double vanishes as he begins walking toward the computer station on the left.

Cisco's hands come up to rub at his temples and Eobard wishes that he could run his hands through his hair. "Joe was right. You were there that night fifteen years ago. In Barry's house." It's not an accusation, so much as a statement of fact and Eobard can just tell that Cisco's searching for an explanation outside of the obvious. "You killed Nora Allen."

There is none, but he can't care about that. Now now. Not when the words on his wrist flare up like the sun, burning his soulmark black with such intensity that he pauses in closing the laptop before him.

"It was never my intention to kill Nora. I was there to kill Barry." He corrects and he's never hated Barry more than in this moment. For creating the circumstances that have lead him to his soulmate, only to have him lose him so soon afterwards. It builds up in his chest like lightning and he has to walk it out before it consumes him.

"Why?" Cisco asks. "You're his friend. You've been teaching him to-"

"Go faster." Eobard cuts in and it's a testament to the trust between them that Cisco doesn't turn to face him as he walks a measured circle around him. "I know. A means to an end, and I'll tell you why."

Cisco deserves that much from him at least. An explanation as to why he can't live, a reason as to why Eobard would ever hurt him after all that's passed between them.

"It's because I have been stuck here," He clenches his fists, biting out the words before he can swallow them down again. "Marooned here in this place for fifteen long years."

Another circle.

"And the Flash and the Flash's speed is the key to my returning to my world. To my time." He pauses and turns to face the young man behind him, tone lowering to almost a whisper when he sees the grief in Cisco's expression. "And no one is going to prevent that from happening."

Not even you, he thinks, and Cisco's next words makes a part of him shiver.

"I can help you." He says and it's not a plea for his life so much as a genuine offer to help. And, oh, how much he loves this brilliant boy.

But still, he shakes his head. "You're smart, Cisco." Because no matter what, Cisco Ramon is pure. He wouldn't be able to live with knowing that his soul mate killed his best friend's mother. "But not that smart."

And he'll never have to.

When the tears finally fall from where they've gathered on Cisco's lashes, he wants to kiss them away, but Cisco looks down and shakes his head.

"Do you know how hard it has been to keep all of this from you," He lays his hand at the nape of his neck instead, cradling his face as his hands strokes the saline from his cheeks. "Especially from you? Because the truth is that I've grown to love you."

It's the first time he's said it and Cisco looks up in surprise, eyes catching on Eobard's soulmark as more tears slip free. "And in many ways, you have shown me what it's like to have a soul mate."

He strikes before Cisco can look away again, hand curling around his heart, and Cisco's lips part in shock. He presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth as his heart stops.

"Forgive me," He pleads, breathing the words against Cisco's cheek as the light fades from his eyes. "But to me you've been dead for centuries.

His only consolation is that Cisco is dead before he even hits the ground.

* * *

 **I was iffy about posting this, but considering the next part will most likely be Cisco's POV, I decided to just roll with it. That being said, I'm not at all sorry for this and will be picking up the morning of 1x16 in the next section.**


	4. Rewind (1)

**Title: Rewind**

 **Rating: Teen**

 **Pairing: Cisco Ramon / Eobard Thawne**

 **Warnings: Abusive Family Relationships, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Torture**

* * *

 **Part IV: Chapter I: Rewind**

* * *

The morning of Dante's birthday dawns with way too much sunshine for Cisco's liking. It's like his mom spent all night praying for the perfect day and got a bright blue expanse of warmth without a cloud in sight.

It rained on his birthday.

"You only have to stop by and say hello, Cisco." Wells reminds him from where he's pushed himself up on the pillows and Cisco groans.

"No, I don't." It's never that simple where Dante is concerned. "Because if I do, then I'll have to stay for a surprise piano recital and cake."

It'll probably be three tiers this year.

Wells smiles and presses a kiss to his forehead. "It can't be that bad." He insists and oh yeah it could.

"For my last birthday, I got an e-card and an invitation to a classical music concert." Cisco reminds him and Wells laughs. It's not mean at all but Cisco has to resist the urge to jab his finger into his boss's side. That would be rude.

"Which we skipped for dinner and Classic Movie Night at the theatre." Another kiss, this time against his lips and Cisco sighs into it. "I heard that Caitlin and Ronnie really enjoyed that concert."

And now there's just the hint of tongue...

Dammit.

"Well, here's to hoping that we don't catch our mysterious coroner murderer until after the party." He grumbles between kisses and Wells pulls back to give him a disapproving look.

"That's a terrible thing to say." And there's the disapproving voice to go along with it.

"Why are you pushing this?" He doesn't mean to snap, but he does, and god, why does he always turn into an ass about his family?

Wells sees right through him though and answers with as much patience as he always does, fingers working the tangles from the hair at the base of his neck until the tension bleeds from his shoulders. "They're your family, Cisco. Even if they don't do the best job of showing it."

"No," He shakes his head and ducks from beneath Wells' hand. "You're my family. You and Caitlin and Ronnie. Barry. Even Joe. But they're just..."

He sighs again and gets up to grab an outfit from the closet. When he returns, Wells is still in bed, glasses now perched on his nose as he pulls a shirt over his head. "Why don't you spend some time with Caitlin this morning?" He suggests and Cisco pauses from where he's trying to get his socks on without falling over. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind getting to spend more time with you."

Harrison pats the bed and Cisco sits to finish tugging on his socks. "What about our hail murderer?"

"I'm sure a few minutes to yourself this morning won't set us back too far." He says as Cisco fishes his shoes from under the bed and it's not meant to hurt but it does. God, he hates today. "We'll talk when you get to work."

"Okay." He grabs his keys from the dresser and pauses at the door. "Don't forget to call me if anything happens." He reminds him and Harrison smiles.

"I wouldn't dream of it."

...

Fuck, he forgot how much better Wild Cherry Freezes could make him feel. "Thanks Cait."

She smiles, lips stained with just a hint of syrupy red. "Hey, don't mention it. Is my tongue red?"

Cisco laughs when she sticks it out. "Very." He assures her and shows her his own.

"God, yours is so much worse. What did you even do that?"

"Uh, hello. Icee." He shakes his cup at her. "I am powerless against its siren song." He tells her as they enter the elevator leading to the Cortex and she shoves his shoulder.

"Okay, okay. So..." She fiddles with her straw. "What are you planning on doing about... today?" She asks and his good mood vanishes instantly.

"Stay here with my phone on silent until my mom calls to offer me the leftover arroz con pollo." Which is exactly what he did when he had moved out two years ago, sans phone call and leftovers.

"But it's a party." Caitlin insists and Cisco turns to face her, like maybe saying the words directly to her will get them through.

"It's Dante's party," The elevator doors slide open. "And I really don't want to go."

Her voice is all exasperation as she leads the way out of the lift. "He's your brother, Cisco."

"Not by choice!" It's sharper than he means it to be and its the second time he's snapped at someone he loves over this in the last hour.

Caitlin doesn't sound hurt though. If anything she's even more positive and he takes a moment to see if she's joking. "Okay, well, how bad can a birthday party be?"

Nope, she's completely serious.

"Um, my folks think Dante's stink don't stink." Understatement of the century. "Doesn't matter how much he screws up or how many times he gets in trouble. In their eyes he can do no wrong." Like the weed debacle his junior year of high school. "And yet they never fail to remind me that I can do no right." He gestures hopelessly, wishing she could just understand, because it hurts so much being compared to someone he loves and knowing that he'll never be good enough.

Caitlin turns to face him then, pulling him from his thoughts as she halts their progression down the hallway. "What if I came with you?"

He tries to picture Caitlin standing awkwardly in his living room while his brother gets showered in praise and nearly laughs. "What, seriously?"

"Absolutely." She insists, eyes so sincere that it makes his heart ache. "You've done so much for me. Let me be there for you for a change." Suddenly, she smiles, blinding and bright. "And I can look at old family photo albums and see what little Cisco looks like without long hair."

Not if he burns them.

"I'm rescinding your invite." He tells her and she's still chuckling a little when they reach the Cortex, but the sight of a pair of mug shots on the evidence screen kills that pretty quickly. She leaves him at the center console to study it more intently and Cisco shoots a smile Wells' way in thank you. His soul mate smiles back and Cisco means to ask him if he put Caitlin up to going with him but Cait cuts him off.

"Clyde Mardon has a brother?" She asks, voice miffed and Joe -which, where the hell did he come from?- shifts uncomfortably.

"So both Mardon brothers survive the plane crash," Harrison says, obviously continuing from where his conversation with Barry and Joe left off. "And the dark matter released by the particle accelerator explosion affects them in-"

"Virtually the same way." Barry finishes with him and Cisco arches an eyebrow at him.

Across from him, Wells hesitates. "That's right."

"Only Mark's not like Clyde at all." Barry continues. "He can do things that you couldn't even imagine."

Which is a weird thing to say considering all the metas they've faced so far, but hey, he did kill someone via stoning by hail. Speaking of: "You mean he's sort of like a-"

"Weather wizard?" Barry cuts in and, _what the hell?_

"...Yeah." He says, narrowing his eyes at their resident speedster as he sucks down more Cherry Freeze than he probably should and-

OW.

"Trigeminal headache?" Caitlin and Barry - _again!_ \- say at the same time and he has never had a brain freeze this bad before.

He doesn't catch what Harrison says to Barry, but he watches them leave and takes a few deep breathes to try and work through the pain.

Caitlin pats his arm. "You okay?" She asks and he shakes his head.

"Is it possible to get a double brain freeze?" He replies and she frowns at him.

"Try sticking your thumb to the roof of your mouth." Joe volunteers and Cisco does as instructed. He must look really-

Oh. "Wow, thanks Joe." He says in wonder and the detective smiles.

"Two kids remember." He sounds fond as he says it too and Cisco wonders if his parents ever sounded like that when talking about he and his brother.

"So, that was weird, right?" He asks, shaking the thought from his head.

"Trigeminal headaches are actually really common," Caitlin pipes up. "Although there are a rare few people who never get them."

Cisco stares at her. "I was talking about Barry."

"Oh, he's been doing that all morning." Joe adds, so, it's definitely weird then.

Well, whatever it is he hopes it's strange enough to keep him here for a few more hours.

...

Thirty minutes later he's standing in the Pipeline next to an equally bewildered Caitlin and mentally kicking himself for jinxing it.

"I'm gonna break out of here and I'm gonna create a tidal wave that destroys your entire city!" Mardon rages from behind the one-way glass of his cell.

Which... Is oddly specific, but whatever. _Every villain likes to have his monologue_ , he thinks as he closes the blast door separating them from the RF cavities cum holding cells.

"So, I still don't understand." He begins as Barry pulls off his mask. "How did you find him?"

"Uh, I just had a hunch." Barry says and smiles that goofy smile of his.

 _Riiiight._

"That's gotta be some kind of record." Caitlin cuts in before he can ask and he laughs.

"Yeah," No kidding. He looks over at Wells for for something to do, but his boss is too busy glaring at Barry to notice. Well, then. "There goes my excuse for bailing on my brother's birthday." He complains and Caitlin loops a comforting arm around his waist as they leave the Pipeline.

...

The house is packed by the time they arrive, music and multiple conversations happening at once to create of hum of sound that almost drowns out his cousin's greeting at the door.

"Wow, your parents really went all out with the cake." Caitlin remarks as they enter the family room and he looks to where she's pointing.

Three tiers: FELIZ CUMPLEANOS DANTE in big bright letters.

"Oh..." He fiddles with the present in his hand and has to remind himself that what's inside is fragile. "Well it is Dante's birthday. The most important day of the year."

Across the room, his mom starts gushing about his brother to some of the guests. "Mijo was invited to play Carnegie Hall when he was just thirteen years old." It's said with such glowing pride that it's almost hard to believe that she's said it nearly every year since then and Cisco thinks back to the fully functional model accelerator that he had made using a salad bowl and a handful of grounding rods when he was thirteen.

"They invited the entire band, Mama." Dante interrupts with false humility and Caitlin shoots him a look that clearly says 'Are they serious?'

Unfortunately, they are.

"That doesn't make it any less worthwhile." His mother reminds him and continues on to the circle of guests when Dante catches sight of him-

 _Don't do it._

-and walks over, eyes bright with laughter. "Hey, what's up, man?" He greets and Cisco barely remembers to smile.

"Hey."

He sounds anything but enthused but Dante only shoves his hands into his pockets. "Glad you could make it."

"Of course." He smiles this time, but Dante's already looking away.

"Hi, I'm Dante." He tells Caitlin and Cisco interferes because he knows that look in his brother's eyes.

"This is Caitlin." He lays his hands on her shoulders, hoping that his brother will get the hint but the "Hi, Caitlin." His brother answers with is nearly breathy with attraction.

She extends a hand and smiles politely when he shakes it. "Happy birthday, Dante." She says with sincerity and Cisco feels like an ass for wanting to roll his eyes.

"Thank you." Dante's still smiling at her dopily so Cisco catches his attention with one of the only things that his brother loves more than girls: presents.

"Here, I got you this." He says as he hands it over.

"Oh." Dante voice is apathetic as he looks it over, but Cisco can't keep the smile off his face because it took him weeks and no small amount of googling to make.

"I think you're really gonna like it." He begins and chokes on his words when Dante flips it up into the air. "It-"

"Thanks man."

 _Well, there goes your miniature lab-grown crystal piano_ , he thinks and bites his lip to keep his eyes from welling up. "Yeah."

Dante smiles, throws a farewell over his shoulder as he leaves and Caitlin gives him the biggest What The Fuck look that he's ever seen.

"Did he just...?" She asks faintly and Cisco nods. "But the mini-piano."

"Ruined." He sighs and goes to find a drink while Dante tunes the actual piano. There's punch on the island in the kitchen, but it's probably not spiked, so he digs into the fridge for one of his dad's Goose Islands.

"One would thing that we taught you not to steal, mijo." He dad says from somewhere behind him and he nearly smacks his head on the glass shelving above him.

"Tu casa, es mi casa." He tells him and grabs the bottle opener off the fridge. "You really went to town with the cake."

"Well, you know how your mother is this time of year." His dad smiles and motions for him pass him a beer.

"Over the top?" Cisco mutters as he pops the cap off and his dad's smile vanishes.

"You would do well to have a little more love for your family, Cisco." He reprimands and Cisco thinks of Caitlin standing awkwardly in his old living room and Barry's excitement over random facts that he finds cool.

Most of all he thinks of Dr. Wells, his soul mate, and all the times that he's reminded him of how special he truly is. "I do love my family." He tells him and leaves his beer on the island when he goes to find Caitlin.

Dante's just finishing up his song on the piano when he gets back and Caitlin nudges him as she claps politely along with the rest of the guests.

"Que linda, Dante!" His mom beams, laying her hands on his brother's shoulders. "Here is one who was touched by God."

Dante smiles and excuses himself, honing in on Caitlin as soon as he's within hearing distance. "I was a little rusty. I haven't played in a while."

"Oh, well," Cait laughs awkwardly, clearly at a loss for words. "If that was what you sound like rusty I can't imagine what you sound like when you've practiced."

"For you I'd practice morning, noon, and night." Dante replies and Cisco laughs to keep himself from gagging.

"That means you'd actually have to wake up in the morning." He jokes and Dante's smile slips away.

"So mom tells me that you're still working at STAR Labs." His voice is heavy with disapproval and Cisco regrets ever telling him that he Identified with Wells. Even if he had been extremely drunk when he'd told him, he should have known that Dante would never let him forget his slip in judgement.

Beside him, Caitlin looks at him curiously, obviously knowing that she's missed something but he figure's that he can always explain later. "Yeah, why?"

"No reason man. Guess it was just hard to find another job." Dante says and Cisco thinks back to the time that he had accused him of sleeping his way into his job and holds down the urge to vomit.

"I wasn't looking. I actually like working at STAR Labs." He says tightly and Caitlin steps in before he can continue.

"And _we_ couldn't do what we do without Cisco." She tells him, smile bright and falsely cheerful.

Dante nods "Oh, he's loyal." He agrees and Cisco's lips twitch into a surprised smile at the praise. "Just like a dog."

Caitlin sucks in a sharp breath and Cisco's smile fades. Dante jumps on the balls of his feet and smiles too wide, because he's enjoying this.

"Oh come on. Why are you so serious, _mija_?"

Cisco hates him.

But he can't tell him that, not at his own party and in front of his friends, so he just scoffs and brushes past Caitlin on the way to the door.

...

Caitlin finds him sitting on the steps not even a minute later and her footsteps are heavy with anger.

"I thought you were joking." She nearly exclaims and Cisco lets out a wet sounding laugh.

"Not even a little bit." He corrects and she wraps an arm around his shoulders to keep him from shaking. "What did he mean with the 'mija' comment?"

Oh. "He started calling me that when I told him that I Identified with a guy." He explains and she looks bewildered. "You know how soulmarks work, right?"

She shoves him. "Oh course I do. You found your soul mate and he so happens to be a... Well, a _he_. So what?"

"He was calling me a girl Cait, it's not that much of a leap." He says and the laughter in her eyes winks out like a candle.

"That's horrible." She breathes and Cisco snorts.

"That's Dante." He agrees and holds a hand out to her as he rises. "Come on, I need a drink."

"Oh, I, uh, can't." She says and she sounds genuinely regretful, like she'd like nothing more than to sit with him in a bar while he drinks away his family drama.

"Ronnie?" He asks and she grins.

"He's supposed to call and I really don't want to miss it." She explains and he waves her off.

"Say no more. I can walk from here." He reassures her with as real a smile as he can manage.

"Your sure?" She asks as she digs her keys out. "I can drop you back at the Labs... Or your apartment."

He looks back at the house and sighs. "I think I need the air right now, Cait. Tell Ronnie that I said hey, okay?"

"I will." She promises and climbs into her little Fiat. Cisco watches her leave and shoves his fists deeper into his pockets.

Well then.

...

He's halfway to the bar with a promise from Barry to meet up for drinks when a pretty blonde woman asks him for directions to a local hotel.

"I'm actually headed in that direction if you want to walk with me." He tells her and she looks relieved.

"I'm Lisa," She holds out a hand for him to shake.

"Cisco."

"I'm just in town for the symposium at Mercury Labs." She explains, falling into step with him and he can't help but do a double take.

"Really? What do you do?" He asks, turning to walk backwards so that he can actually see her when they talk.

"I'm a structural engineer." He raises an eyebrow. "Why do you look so surprised? Can't a girl be an engineer?"

"No," Yes! "Of course. That's, uh," He tries to think of something that wont offend her. "You just don't look like an engineer."

She pulls an expression that's dangerously close to a pout. "I can't help the way I look."

Yep, definitely the wrong thing to say. "I mean, it's good. It's a good look." Caitlin would be kicking him right now. "It's a great look."

Shut up, shut up, _shut up_.

But she smiles like he's given her the best compliment in the world. "You don't look so bad yourself." She says and that's definitely flirting that's going down right now.

He thinks of Harrison and forces out a laugh. "I actually Identified already." He tells her and her face falls. "Not that I wouldn't be interested if I hadn't. I definitely would. But I did and I'm... not."

Yikes.

"Oh," And she sounds really disappointed. Dammit. "Well, then I'm really sorry about this." She says and wait-

There's a sharp pain in his neck as an arm wraps around him from behind. "What?"

He drops.

* * *

 **A/N: I don't consider this a cliffhanger because you all know what's going to happen anyway. I _am_ sorry for the lack of ciscowells moments though. There'll be more in the next chapter.**

 **Speaking of which, I decided to split this part into two chapters because it was getting long.**

 **Now on to business:**

 **1\. Soul mates are like one soul in two bodies. You Identify (Mark turns black and heats up) when they say the words that make up your soul mark.**

 **2\. Not everyone finds their soulmates and not everyone falls in love with their soulmates. You still have free will.**

 **3\. You can Identify with someone and not have them Identify with you. (Such as Barry Identifying with Iris.)**

 **4\. You can Identify with Person A and still have someone else Identify with you. (Iris and Eddie Identifying together, while Barry Identified with Iris.**

 **5\. Soulmarks appear during puberty, not birth. Maybe because of the change of hormones in the body, maybe because that's the time when you're most likely to do something about it.**

 **6\. Soulmarks can only be fulfilled by your soulmate through Identifying. It's more coincidence than destiny honestly. Life isn't set in stone. (Even for fictional Soulmate AUs.)**


	5. Rewind (2)

**Title: Rewind**

 **Rating: Teen**

 **Pairing: Cisco Ramon / Eobard Thawne**

 **Warnings: Abusive Family Relationships, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Torture**

* * *

 **Part IV: Chapter II: Rewind**

* * *

He's woken up by an annoyingly familiar voice and a foot on his chest that's, wow, making it _really_ hard to breath.

"I tap out." He groans and the rush of air to his lungs makes his vision blur.

"You'll be nauseous for a while. Hope you don't mind." Smart drawls from above him and Cisco offers him a sarcastic smile in response.

"Gee, just what I wanted." He rolls onto his side so that he can push himself up, spitting the hair that falls into his mouth out as he does so. "What do you want, Snart?"

"Guns." Captain Cold tells him. "Heat and cold to be precise."

Cisco shakes his head, ears ringing with the movement as he tries to process what he just said- Wait. "There is no way I'm making weapons for you." Deep breaths. "Never again."

Cold closes his eyes like Cisco's denial is physically paining him. That or he's counting the seconds before he beats him to a pulp. "Mick." He finally calls, blue eyes flashing open as he looks behind Cisco.

The door on the other side of the room opens and Cisco draws in a sharp breath.

Dante. Ohmygod, Dante.

"I know I would do everything in my power to protect my family." Snart says and he's closer now, just behind Cisco's shoulder as they look at his brother bleeding on the carpet. "The question is, will you?"

Dante looks up at him then. Eyes big and pleading as blood trickles from the cut along his brow.

"Tell me that you at least have the parts." Cisco bites out and Leonard claps him on the back.

"Good boy."

...

"What was it like?" Lisa asks from the doorway. She's been standing there for a few minutes, quiet and frowning as she fiddles with the gold watch over her wrist.

"What was what like?" He focuses on the heat conversion chamber on the table as he speaks and is granted with the sound of heels against the wooden floor as she walks closer.

"My dad used to say that finding your soul mate was a waste of time. That it was just a defect of evolution." She pauses when Cisco looks at her, chest rising on a breath before she focuses on a grain of wood in the table. "Lenny thinks that he's just bitter. What do you think?"

"Why are you asking me this?" He needs a better energy converter. With the excuse for a resistor that they've given him, he'll be lucky if the gun doesn't short out and explode the first time it's fired.

"Your mark went off." She says and he pauses in his search for a replacement resisting agent. "I saw it when Mick dumped you on the carpet."

Maybe a carbon particle ceramic mix, if he can find it. "And?"

"And I want to know if it's all lights and bells like the media makes it out to be." She takes the soldering iron from it's cradle, examines it, and sits it down again. "I figured you would be able to tell me, so can you?"

Cisco pauses to think. He'd been too awestruck of Wells when his mark had gone off to really catalog how it felt to Identify. Now that he thinks back on it, it had been startling. Amazing and unexpected, but also probably one of the best feelings that he'd ever experienced.

"It's like..." He picks up the iron before it can burn a groove into the table and puts it back into its proper coils. "It's like getting a surprise present that you didn't even know you wanted. But now that you have it, you can't imagine letting it go. It's a flare of heat and suddenly you know that the person speaking to you is your other half, even if you know nothing about them."

Lisa studies her own wrist as he talks, as if she can read her soulmark through the gold band of her watch, and hums. "Sounds pretty." She says after a long moment of silence, then walks away.

Cisco goes back to looking for a resistor.

...

They move Dante into the room with him halfway through the night. It's probably to give him extra incentive as he works, but it's more distracting than anything because he can't stop looking up to check on him.

He needs to get him out of here and to a hospital to make sure that he doesn't have a concussion or internal bleeding. Someone needs to call Mama and Papi and tell them what's going on. Oh god, they're gonna be furious that he got his brother hurt, especially after all the times that Mama has told him to give up STAR Labs for a safer job.

"I'm sorry." He says and Dante ignores him. "I didn't mean for this to happen, okay? But I'm working on getting us out of here, so just stay awake. You might have a concussion."

Dante looks at him then, face stiff with anger. "I'm not stupid, Cisco." He bites out and Cisco bites his tongue. He doesn't speak to him again until the sun rises and it's only because the noise Dante is making as he tries to get free is probably going to draw unneeded attention to them.

"Dante." He glances at the door to the main part of the house and shifts toward his brother more. "Dante, just keep cool, okay? Let me do my thing."

Dante looks up from where he's trying to loosen the coils of rope around his wrists. "Oh really? And what, you're gonna save us with your 'mechanical engineering' skills?"

Well, yeah. That was the general idea. But of course Dante can never just admit that anything about Cisco could possibly be useful.

"Right now my skills are the only things keeping us alive." He doesn't say what he's thinking, but it shows in the anger in his voice. "So if I were you, I would _shut up_."

"You shut up!" Dante hisses and ohmygod-

"Ah, there she is!" A voice interrupts from the doorway and Cisco looks long enough to see Rory and both Snart siblings before he steps back from the table. Rory picks up his gun and for a moment Cisco thinks that he might kiss it. "I missed this baby."

Cisco folds his arms and resists the urge to curl away as Leonard Snart walks toward him. "Here it is. All finished." He nods toward the guns to direct Snart's attention away from himself. "Are you gonna let us go now?"

Snart ignores him. "You know, I took the first gun you made me apart dozens of times." He says and Cisco wonders if he has any hobbies. "I learned how it ticked. What went where."

Cisco blinks at him and Snart beckons him forward with a nod. _Shit_ , he thinks and unfolds his arms so that he can pass over the missing spring loader.

"Thought you could tamper with the firing pin without me noticing." He says as he clicks it into place and the gun starts with a hum. "Nice try kid."

"Lenny," Lisa calls from the door, just like she had done yesterday. "Where's my gun? Girl's gotta defend herself. Besides, why should you two have all the fun?"

She smiles and Cisco feels dread curl into his stomach like a fist. "My sister needs a weapon." He needs to get Dante out of here. "Something to fit her personality."

"Make me something pretty and toxic. Like me." Lisa cuts in and the curious woman from last night is nowhere to be found when she looks at him. "How about something gold?"

He gets the uncontrollably urge to laugh all of a sudden. That, or cry. "Gold?"

He laughs.

...

When the Snart siblings leave and Mick starts setting glasses of whiskey on fire, Cisco gives up. They're tied to a table, the sun is starting to set again, and he hasn't gotten any sleep since yesterday morning. Well, not counting when he was drugged that is.

"Most people think the hottest part of the flame is the white part." Mick finally says and Cisco wonders how much it would hurt to knock himself out via wooden table. "They're wrong."

"You gonna admire those or are you gonna drink them?" Dante cuts in and Cisco almost shushes him.

Mick doesn't seem to mind though, because he just blows one out and tosses it back. "Both."

Dante looks at Cisco instead of replying. "If they were gonna let us go, they would have done it already." He says and it takes him a moment to realize that he's talking in Spanish instead of English.

He looks at Rory, but their babysitter is content to watch his fire. "Yeah, I know..."

Dante looks down at the table when he doesn't continue. "You remember Melinda Tores?"

What? "Your highschool girlfriend and love of my life?" Well, at least before Wells came around and he Identified, but he swears to god if Dante says something self-conceited right now, he is so done.

"Before we started dating, she told me that she had a crush on you." He says it all soft and shameful and Cisco just stares at him, because there is no fucking way-

"Melinda Tores had a crush on me?"

"I told her that you wanted to be a priest." He stops and takes a breath. "I broke her heart."

"Why would you do that?" And why is he telling him this now of all times?

"Because I was jealous of you, man." Dante says and he can't seem to meet his eyes. "Even then, I knew exactly where my life was headed. No where."

That's not- "Dante, that's not true." He tells him and his brother looks like he's about to cry.

"I live at home." This cannot be happening right now. "I work a crap job for no pay."

"Yeah, but you still manage to be mom and dad's favorite." He needs Dante to remember that. He needs him to be strong because his head is starting to swim and he can't handle Dante having a crisis right now.

"I don't even know why." He scoffs and no, no, no. Not _now_. "It's because they still think of me as Their Son: The Concert Pianist. But you, man, they never understood your talent. They never understood that you pursued you passion, and not just because of what your soul mark says, but because you love engineering. Me? I was just too scared to even try."

There was a time when hearing this from his brother was the only thing that could have ever mattered to him, but now it just feels like a goodbye. "I've never fought for anything in my life." Dante continues and Cisco feels sick because he doesn't want him to. "Until now."

The entire table shudders when Dante kicks it and Cisco looks in Mick's direction frantically. "Dan-" Another kick. "Dante, no!"

But his brother picks up the broken table leg in his still bound hands and tries to hit Rory with it and, oh god, he doesn't need Dante to be a hero.

There's the sound of shattering glass and Dante drops to the ground like a brick. He has to get to him, he has to check on him. So he drops down and works his hands under the other leg of the table. When he turns, Rory is right behind him and it's instinct more than anything that causes him to swing.

Mick punches him in the eye and he drops so quick that he'd be embarrassed if he wasn't panicking. There's a brutal kick to his side, followed by another punch to his face before he has time to block it.

A sharp voice is calling Mick's name over the sound of the blood rushing in his ears, but the blows keep coming. "Mick! We need them!"

That finally seems to get through and Cisco never thought he'd be relieved to see Leonard Snart's face before now.

"Mick, hey," Lisa says softly as she steps up behind him and pulls Rory away. "It sounds like you're hungry." She continues, like this is a Snickers commercial and Cisco rolls onto his side so that he can get to his knees. "How about you and I grab dinner."

"I like you, kid." Cold says once they leave and Cisco can hear him walking around him. "You're smart. You pulled yourself up from humble beginnings." Right now the only thing he's pulling himself up from is the ground. "You seem like a good brother."

Cisco looks at him then, because he's not sure what Snart wants from him anymore. "You too."

Snart rolls his eyes. "Debatable. You answer one question for me, I'll let you and your brother walk."

He doesn't need to think about it to know his answer, even if he is wary. "What's the question?"

"The Flash." Snart says. "Who is he?"

 _Of fucking course that's what you'd want to know_ , he thinks and shakes his head. "I swear, he always wears a mask." He tells him because he can't put another person he loves in danger.

Snart doesn't believe him though and Dante screams in pain as his hands freeze. "No!" He's kneeling at his brother's side so fast that he doesn't even register moving. "No, stop!"

"This is first degree frostbite." Leonard says over he sound of Dante whimpering and Cisco has to take deep breaths to keep from vomiting on the expensive rug beneath them. "Your brother could recover with proper treatment. If not, all his tendons, blood vessels, and nerves will freeze. His fingers will need to be amputated. No more concertos for the Ramon family holidays." He leans down so that he can look him in the eyes and Cisco shudders. "Now tell me, who is the Flash?"

...

He rides to the hospital with Dante once the ambulance arrives and calls his mom from the first phone that he can get his hands on. When she and his dad arrive, they're led to a room where a nurse is working on reheating Dante's hands enough to save his skin from permanent tissue damage.

"There will be a lot of pain as you regain feeling and your hands will feel hot even though they aren't." She tells him once she's done and turns to Cisco when Dante nods. "He's lucky that you got help to him so quick. Otherwise we may have had to amputate them." His mom lets out a sob. "Now, if you'll all excuse me, I'll go grab the doctor so that he can go over the details of treatment with you."

"Mama, I'm-" Cisco begins once the door shuts and he expects anger and tears, but not the sharp slap to the face that he receives.

"Basta!" His Papi pulls her back and she lets out another sob. "Cálmate, tienes que dejar esa."

"No!" She cuts him off. "I will not calm down! Estos es su culpa. This is _his fault._ " She pulls herself away from her husband and shoves past Cisco so that she wrap her arms around Dante. "Mi pobre niño. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, mama." He tells her and Cisco leaves as soon as he knows they wont notice.

He's not sure how he gets to STAR Labs or how long it takes, but he knows that he has to warn Barry before Snart can use his identity to hurt him. Once he's in the hall leading to the Cortex he can hear the voices of his team and it's like he's in a wind tunnel because he can't make out what they're saying until Wells speaks up. His voice cuts through the noise in his head like a knife, comforting and sure even though he's not talking to him and Cisco has to focus to make out what he's actually saying.

"Brave heart, Barry. We'll get Cisco back."

We. They're all there then. "I'm back."

Caitlin meets him halfway across the room and throws her arms around him. "Ohmygod, are you okay?" She asks and he sinks into her embrace as his throat goes tight. "We were so worried."

"What happened?" Barry asks once she pulls away but he's too focused on Harrison to really notice.

His soul mate must understand the look on his face because the relief in his eyes flickers and fades like a clear sky before a store hits. "How did you escape?"

"I didn't." He can't meet his eyes, but looking at Barry is out of the question, so he settles for something in between.

"Snart just let you go?" It's incredulous and it hurts and he still can't speak around the lump in his throat. "Why?"

"He, um, he tortured my brother." He finally chokes out and Cait makes an aborted move toward him but he shakes his head. "And he said he was going to kill him if I didn't... If I didn't tell him-"

"Tell him what?" Caitlin's voice is gentle, like she's talking to a frightened animal, and he knows that if he wasn't so exhausted he'd probably hate it.

"Who the flash really was."

Barry looks away and Caitlin shakes her head. Even Harrison's face is blank and he just needs them to understand that he never-

He never would have if he had the choice. "I- They could have killed me." He chokes off again and his vision blurs as the tears finally start to fall. "They were going to kill my brother. I couldn't let them do that."

"Hey," Barry says and grabs him by he shoulders when he tries to continue. "No."

Cisco shakes his head, because Barry doesn't get it. Not really. So he tries again. "I'm so sorry-"

Barry cuts him off with a hug this time. "I put you in that position. I'm the one who's sorry" He says and Cisco has to push down the insane urge to laugh, because Barry's probably the only person on the planet with a guilt complex that's worse than his own.

Pulling away, he looks around Barry to his boss, his soul mate, and tries to show him how truly sorry he is. But once he does, he can't bring himself to actually make eye contact, so he just turns away.

"Where are you going?" Barry calls after him and Cisco is so tired that he just gives up and leans on the center console like he's wanted to do since he walked into the room.

"I don't deserve to be here." He says and cuts off Barry before he can say anything. "I won't be the one to put you in jeopardy." He looks at Cait and Wells, his family in everything but blood and shakes his head. "Not again. Never again."

He leaves.

...

He's packing up his toolbox when he thinks he hears the whir of Wells wheelchair and glances at the door long enough to make sure he's actually there. "Don't worry, I'll be out of your hair soon." He tells him because if there's anything that Wells could ever love more than whatever is between them, it's the miracle he created with Barry Allen.

"Well, before you shuffle off forever, may I show you something?" Harrison asks and he sounds... amused?

He smiles when Cisco turns to look at him and Cisco follows him, just like he always has. Once that reach the room with the containment cell, he throws his hands up in frustration.

"I get it. I failed." There's no need to rub it in.

But Wells just shakes his head. "No, no, no. You're incredibly clever, Cisco. So why don't you tell me," He stops in front of him and holds his gaze with his own. "Why would I bring you down here?"

He almost says _I don't know_ , but then thinks better if it. "Because we all failed that night." He thinks of his hesitation to shut down the forcefeild when the Reverse Flash got a hold of Harrison and the way his soulmate had reassured him that he'd done the right thing even when it didn't feel like it. "We kept trying to protect each other and Barry despite the setbacks."

Wells smiles. "Making the choice between two people that you love, that is the hardest dilemma you will ever face." He tells him and Cisco shakes his head because he doesn't want to have to make that choice.

"Well, you won't have to worry about me making the wrong decision again." He says and Wells looks angry for the first time since he came back.

"All you proved today, Cisco, is that you human." He snaps and Cisco nearly flinches."All you proved today is that you love your brother. And the reason that we all want you to stay is that we love you too." His voice goes softer, more patient, and when Cisco looks at him he's smiling the way he normally does at home. "Now, I may not have Identified yet, but in many ways you have shown me what it's like to have a soul mate, Cisco."

He looks up at that and the relief that courses through him in that moment is enough to bring him to his knees. That and the flare of pain that seems to originate in his heart and causes a startled gasp to break free from his lungs.

"Cisco?" Harrison asks as Caitlin's voice breaks over the intercom and Wells pushes the button on to cut her off mid-speech. "Barry, come to the containment room!" He orders and there's a flash of red before everything goes black.

* * *

 **Now that's a cliffhanger. Stay tuned for the next chapter in Eobard's POV. Also, special thanks to The Narator for putting up with all my flailing in her IM on Tumblr when it came to actually writing this chapter.**


	6. Rewind (3)

**Title: Rewind: Chapter III**

 **Rating: Teen**

 **Relationships: Cisco/Eobard, Cisco & Caitlin, Cisco & Barry.**

 **Warnings: Non-consensual drug use, aftermath of torture, minor character death, canon-typical violence.**

* * *

 **Part IV: Chapter III: Rewind**

* * *

It seems to take an agonizing amount of time to get to the Cortex after Barry speeds away with Cisco hanging limp in his arms, and, not for the first time, Eobard curses his initial estimation of the wheelchairs' necessity. Surely he could have designed an alternative version of the power cell, something small and portable that wouldn't have put him in the position that he now finds himself?

He taps a finger against the arm of the chair as the elevator announces it arrival in the cortex and reminds himself that everything he's done up to this point has had a reason. There's no use in trying to change the past, as he's learned in excruciating detail these past fifteen years.

When he reaches Caitlin's makeshift examination room, he's met with a heartbeat that is irregular and slow in the air around them. He watches as Caitlin works herself through a mental checklist of what the problem might be, hands steady despite the forced calm of her expression and the obvious worry in her eyes when she looks up at him.

He gives her a slight nod for reassurance and her shoulders straighten. "I've hooked him up to an oximeter for now and his heart is beating a lot slower than it should be. However it's the irregularity there that worries me." She works through drawing a blood sample as she talks, eyes flicking up to her friend's face between vial one and two. "It'll take about an hour for me to run a tox screen and even then, if there is anything, I might not know what for another two."

Eobard looks away from Cisco and smiles at her. "I know that you'll do whatever you can, Caitlin. Cisco's in good hands." He tells her and she gives him a small smile in return before he redirects his attention to Barry. "Something happened?"

The other speedster pauses from where he'd been pacing a metaphorical hole into the floor, hands falling from his hair in frustration. "Yeah. I mean no." He pauses and Eobard raises an eyebrow at him in the hope that he'll continue without wasting too much time stammering over a reply. "Caitlin and I were talking about Snart and we realized that the Casino wasn't the actual target."

"Casinos keep tons of cash on hand to cover their markers." Caitlin adds, voice more confident now that she has solid information to provide. "Not to mention the money that they make."

Barry nods and finishes the thought, happy that they've finally gotten somewhere. "But if they're under attack the protocol is to relocate the money outside the casino."

"So that was Snart's plan all along, to trigger the move." And he wanted his favorite weapon to do it, meaning he needed Cisco. It makes sense, which is not a thought that Eobard finds comforting considering the circumstances. He'd rather he not lose his relationship with Cisco to anyone, especially not Snart and his petty schemes for power.

"The only problem is that we don't know where that's going to be..." Caitlin tells him, cutting off his thoughts and Eobard shakes his head.

"Most large quantities of cash will have a tracker hidden among one of the stacks. If we can isolate the signal, we can find the truck." Eobard informs them, already setting to work at his computer on the main console.

"So you and I can handle that," Barry says quickly, gesturing between the two of them as Caitlin arrives in the main section of the Cortex.

"And I'll get started on the tox screen." She announces, blood samples tucked away as she makes her way to the elevator. "Page me if anything happens."

Barry waits until the doors close behind her before turning to him with an expression that Eobard can't quite place. "Does she know?"

He pauses typing mid-word, muscles tensing as he runs through a mental checklist of what Barry might be referring to. It's too soon for him to have figured it out and he's been nothing but careful up until now. Still, he keeps his voice calm when he asks: "Know what exactly, Mr Allen?"

"I, uh," Barry rubs the back of his neck, cheeks not quite flushing as his eyes dart to Cisco and then back to him. "I've never seen you worry like this before. It's not super obvious." He adds hastily and Eobard bites back a smile. "You were just less... tense when Snart had Cait and I might have caught a glimpse of Cisco's Mark when I brought him up here."

"If you're asking whether or not Mr Ramon and I are soul mates, the answer is both yes and no." He keeps his voice neutral and his focus trained on locating the truck as he speaks, but his muscles do relax, if only a little. "He identified with me shortly after his employment here began. As for the no, I have yet to Identify with anyone, much less one of my employees."

"But," Barry hesitates, obviously worried of offending him, but unwilling to let the matter drop. "There are laws-"

Eobard cuts him off with a sharp look, tracker momentarily forgotten. "Cisco Ramon is an extremely talented young man." One of the finest engineering minds I have ever seen. "He needed somewhere where that talent could be recognized and I provided that for him, a fact that I have yet to regret." In the pause that follows, the computer pings as the scan for the relocated money finishes and Eobard allows himself to smile at Barry. "It seems our truck is on the east road leading out of town."

"Okay," Barry seems to take the dismissal for what it is and leaves with one last glance in Cisco's direction. Eobard follows his gaze, eyes tracking the rise and fall of his boy's chest as the breeze of Barry's departure sends the papers on the console into the air.

Caitlin returns soon after, not even pausing when she notices him watching her friend sleep, cheek cupped into his hand for comfort. "The tox-screen should finish in a little while. If it's registered as a controlled substance, then it'll show up, but I'm going to need some symptoms to work off of."

"Confusion." He tells her, thinking back to their conversation in the containment room and Cisco persistence that he'd done something wrong. Then before that, to the sight of Cisco packing up his toolbox as if Eobard would ever let him leave over something as uncontrollable as Snart forcing him to give up Barry's identity. "Fainting."

"Irregular, slow heartbeat and labored breathing." She adds, then furrows her brow. "Fatigue and dizziness, from what I saw when he first arrived

"Not the most comprehensive list, but it'll give us something to work with until he wakes up." Eobard tells her and she nods.

"I'm going to-" She points to the examination room and he waves her away but before she gets further than a few steps, Snart's voice chimes through the speakers.

"Good to see you, Barry." He greets, emphasizing the speedster's name, like he's won something in the game that he seems to think he's playing with Barry.

"I know Cisco told you who I am." Barry's voice isn't as harsh as Eobard's would have been in his position, but then he's never had any sort of fondness for Leonard Snart and probably never will.

"Can't really blame the kid for giving you up." Snart says, as if he's in any position to chide Barry over the treatment of Cisco Ramon. "You or his brother? Come on, I put him in a tight spot. Same kind I've got you in right now. Can't really stop me now that I know who you are."

Eobard thinks of everything that Leonard Snart could jeopardize and knows that he'd sooner rip out his heart than let his actions imprison him here any longer than he has to be. But he can't, not with Barry's new-found "understanding" of his relationship with Cisco. If Snart disappeared Barry would get suspicious and he can't afford to accommodate any doubts about his integrity this early in the game.

"So the million dollar question: What to do with me now, Barry Allen?" Snart asks and Eobard hums. What, indeed.

Beside him, Caitlin nods toward the mic and mouths a "What is it?" at him.

"I'm debating on whether or not I should leave Barry to make this decision on his own." Eobard tells her and it's not at all a lie. Barry is many things, but as he's so recently shown he has a habit of making choices based on his heart instead of the potential consequences of his actions. It's a quality that Eobard doesn't wish to train out of him for obvious reasons, but it's also a quality that could prove unintentionally dangerous under less than favorable circumstances.

"He cares about Cisco just as much as we do." She chides and he nods, tongue flicking out to wet his lips as he thinks.

"I wont let you keep stealing whatever you want, whenever you feel like it. It needs to end." One way or another, but then Barry doesn't have it in him to kill if necessary. Not without letting it ruin him and if it did, what use would Eobard have of him then?

"Barry has a soft spot for Snart." He finally says, drowning out Snart's reply. "But he's not stupid. He'll figure something out."

And he does, once he finally seems to get tired of Snart's obstinance. "You've seen what I can do, you know that I can stop you." Barry tells him, voice sharp with annoyance and Eobard smiles. "You wanna keep pushing your luck, go for it, but from here on out no one else dies. If you're as good as you say you are, you don't have to kill anyone to get what you want."

"That's true." Snart replies reluctantly and Eobard snorts, a biting comment poised on his lips, but he cuts himself off when Barry continues.

"And if you or anyone in your... Rogues Gallery goes near any of my friends or family again, I don't care who you tell my identity to. I'm putting you away."

And if he ever goes anywhere near Eobard's team again, he'll wish Barry had.

"I guess your secret's safe, Flash. For now." Snart says, voice as sure of itself as it always is. "Oh, I don't suppose you'd give me a ride back to town would you?"

Eobard pushes the button on the mic to reject the idea, but a voice from across the room beats him to it.

"Tell him that if he does, I'll put itching powder in the suit when he's not looking." Cisco croaks from where he's pushed himself up from his temporary bed and Caitlin lets out a small cry of surprise before wrapping her arms around him for the second time in the last hour.

Barry arrives seconds later as a blur of red lightning, ozone crackling in the air in his wake and Eobard grins. "Dude, look at you." The speedster chides, already carting his friend back to a flat surface. "Why are you standing?"

"Well I couldn't let you run around and defend my honor without some type of input." Cisco tells him, but sinks onto the medical cot with a sigh of relief. Eobard wheels himself to the entrance of the small room and catches his eye with a fond kind of smile that he normally reserves for more private settings. Cisco sees it though and smiles back, quick and bright, before letting himself be roped into a proper medical examination.

"The screen should be finished soon." Caitlin announces once she's finished and has a full list of his symptoms penned onto a pad of paper. "I'm going to go and check it. Barry, you're coming too."

"But-" He begins and she grabs his arm with what Eobard would almost consider a glare. Barry lets himself be tugged from the room with a quick "Oh" and once they're gone, Cisco bursts into laughter.

"Ow, okay laughing hurts." He whines as Eobard takes the spot beside the cot. Once he's within reach, Cisco leans in to kiss him. "Sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for." Eobard reminds him and Cisco nods, mouth opening in a yawn that he doesn't quite hide behind his hand. "You should sleep. I'll have Barry take you home once he's back."

"What about you?" He asks, eyes drooping as the residual effects of whatever drug is in his system does it's best to drag him back under. Deeming him too out of it to really notice, Eobard checks that they're still alone in the Cortex and rises enough from his chair so that he can press a kiss to the top of Cisco's head and lay him down properly.

"I won't lose you." He finally says, words soft as silk against his hair once he's sure Cisco's asleep and sits at his side until the others arrive with the results of the drug screen.

"He has a large dose of Chlora Hydrate in his system." Caitlin informs them, and pulls a data sheet up onto the widescreen. "It's a class four controlled substance produced by Medisca Pharmaceuticals, which is nowhere near as bad as a class two." She stops and clears her throat. "However, given the effects it's having on his system, I'd say it was mixed with some kind of compound agent."

"The tox screen also revealed an H1-antihistamine," Barry adds when she pauses and Caitlin nods.

"That's what we think the compound agent is, unless there's something that the screen didn't catch."

"As I said before, I trust your judgement in this much more than my own, Dr Snow." He smiles at her and she nods.

"I want to keep him monitored until the morning," She begins and Eobard understands what she wants to say just by the look in her eyes.

"But you have plans." He finishes for her and she looks so frustrated with herself.

"I really want to be here, I do, it's just that

I was planning to meet with Iris and Eddie to clear up Barry's recent odd behavior-"

"Hey!" Barry says on principle, but they both ignore him.

"Which is an excellent idea, Caitlin." Eobard interrupts, because truly, it is and he's grateful to her for even thinking of it with everything else that's been going on. "I can watch over Cisco for the night."

"You're sure?" Barry asks, pausing in the middle of tugging his blazer on over his t-shirt.

Eobard waves him off, a smile gracing his lips as he leads the way to the elevator. "I was planning on tying up a few loose ends anyway, nothing that I can't do here as well as I can at home." He assures them and navigates himself through a handful of goodbyes and goodnights before he allows his fatherly demeanor to drop once they're gone.

He leaves his glasses lying on his chair when he changes into the suit, only stopping long enough to rest a hand over Cisco's heart as he presses a kiss to his lips. It beats under his hand, steadier now that it had been earlier and he hesitates to think of what he'd do if it ever stopped.

It's that thought that bring the rage that's been simmering in his blood all day to the surface and he curls his hand into a fist before leaving in a streak of yellow light.

...

Central City Picture News is dark and empty when he arrives save for one solitary desk lamp. This is where he finds Mason Bridge dutifully typing an exposé with the headline **A Man Of Good Science?** splashed across the screen among a scarlet watermark.

 **Local Report: Harrison Wells of STAR Labs was spotted going into Stagg Industries** is written beneath a picture of him, then a paragraph beneath that are the words **_"What to make of HARRISON WELLS?"_** in big, looping letters.

The electromagnetic disruptor he scrounged from one of Cisco's long forgotten pet projects takes care of the electricity in the room and Bridge taps at his lap to get it back on even as his precious article is lost.

"Harrison Wells." Eobard says and pauses when Mason Bridges jumps and turns to face him, the fear of who or what he's actually seeing reflecting in his too wide eyes. What do you know about him?"

There's only the briefest of moments in which both of them are perfectly still, but the Bridge begins to shake his head and Eobard has him sailing into the legs of a table across the room before he can finish the movement.

"What do you know?" He demands again, watching with a mixture of pity and disgust as Bridge crawls from under the newly legless table and hold his hands up in surrender.

"Everything I know is in that drive." He says, void shaking almost as much as the rest of his body. "I swear."

"Everything?" He can't have a part of this man's work coming back to haunt him, not before he's ready to take the next step in his plan. Barry's not ready and, if he allows himself to admit it, a part of him isn't either.

Before him, Bridge hesitates, eyes flickering to the door and Eobard can read his thoughts on his face, his mental calculations of his odds of leaving this office alive. "Everything." He promises, breathing heavy over the constant hum of Eobard's own body, but carrying a question in that one word as opposed to a plea for his life.

When Bridge's back crashes into ceiling tiles above them, Eobard is sure he's gotten his answer, but he scrambles for the supply closet anyway. He lets him rest there, lets the barest hope of survival settle in him before he allows himself to rip it away with the single brutal action of Bridge's heart shattering in his chest.

He leaves he his body slumped there as makes his way to the still glowing computer on the desk. His own face looks up at him, staring from the other side of a security camera outside of Stagg industries and he smiles.

"You really were onto the story of the century. This century anyway." He tells the body in the closet before driving his fist into the CPU tower. The screen flickers and blacks out, erasing the article from existence in the blink of an eye as he withdraws his hand.

It's the matter of seconds to clean up the evidence of the attack and dump the body where it wont be easily found. He greets Gideon upon his return to STAR Labs and returns his suit to its proper place once she reports that the events of the future are still intact.

"Thank you Gideon." He tells her and she bids him goodnight before flickering out of view. Cisco is still sleeping when he gets back to the Cortex, heartbeat steady as he snores and Eobard simply leans against the doorway and breathes.

There are few things that he's come to appreciate in this time, burgers and the seemingly endless supply of entertainment available on film only being two. But the most significant one, the one that he truly wishes he could take with him, turned out to be a boy that he knows will never agree to go.

* * *

 **A/N: I don't know if I like Eobard in this chapter as much as I did in previous parts. He seems kind of... off. Also, as of now there will only be three more parts to this series. I already have them planned, but if there is a scene that you guys really want to see from the perspective of this AU, let me know.**


End file.
